I've been reading some of the threads here, and have been amused by
the occasional comments of disgust Westerners living in Japan feel
when it's assumed they must be teaching English. I can imagine the
frustration.

However, personally, I WANT to teach English in Japan. (go fig) I'm
curious about what it would take to do so.
I've an English (and theatre) BA and am working on my MFA. However, I
have no real skill at speaking/reading Japanese yet.
How much of a working knowledge of Japanese would one be expected to
have?
I would assume a conversational fluency at least, but I think about a
couple of non-American native college math instructors I had who I
couldn't understand a word of. (Or perhaps it was the math I couldn't
understand....)

And what are the chances that the English I taught could be at a
University level, or corporate? I really have less than no interest
teaching at a highschool (or equivalent) or lower. (4 years working
toward BSE's convinced me there's no way I'm stepping back into a
school containing people younger than 17. Ergo the BA's.)


Thanks for any comments!
Liam
druid -at-celticbear-dot-com